Tuesday, April 22
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Opening General Session

Join us in opening OLA’s 2008 Conference with keynote speaker George Needham. Over the last four years, OCLC has produced three landmark reports on the ways in which librarians and the public perceive, use, and evaluate information. (All are available for free download at http://www.oclc.org/reports.) These reports question many of the assumptions on which library service has been based for decades. Often, the views of librarians and the public are so remarkably different that at times it seems we are speaking completely different languages. George Needham's keynote will address the findings of these reports and offer some ideas on the ways in which we can come to common understandings that will allow us to build a thriving library service for the future.

Speaker: George Needham, is the Vice President for Member Services at OCLC in  Dublin, Ohio, a position he's held since March 1999. He is responsible for Members Council, WebJunction, and the OCLC Library, and is one of the contributors to the blog "It’s All Good." Since April 2004, George has made more than 125 presentations on the OCLC environmental scan and subsequent OCLC reports. George has held a variety of public and state library positions, as well as working for several library associations, during his nearly three decade career. He earned MLS and BA degrees from the University at Buffalo, New York.  He’s taken additional coursework at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University through OCLC's Center for Leadership Development. His sole brush with non-library fame was when he was a two time Jeopardy winner in December, 1994.

Of interest to all.